School board does walk-through of La Casita

September 11, 2007

By Gabriel Monte: CNJ staff writer

School board officials walked through the halls at La Casita Elementary school Tuesday at the board’s first school visitation meeting.

The school board voted in its last meeting to have school visitation meetings at Clovis schools. School superintendent Rhonda Seidenwurm said the meetings would show board members what projects the school are working on and give principals an opportunity to talk to the board about their schools.

School board members toured the elementary school to see how an anticipated $4.5 million renovation project would change the school.

The money for the project would come from an 80/20 co-op funding with the New Mexico Public School Capital Outlay Council said Clovis schools executive director of operations Gene Bieker.

He said the renovation is tentatively scheduled for February 2008 and will finish in January 2009.

About 430 students use 20 classrooms in the school building and six portable rooms outside, Bieker said. The renovation would add 11 classrooms and eliminate all but one of the portable schools, he said.

“We get to get rid of the trailer park,” La Casita principal Henry Montano said.

Montano said the school has had the portable classrooms since he started at La Casita about 10 years ago.